UK Bus Checker

There’s no two ways about it - UK Bus Checker is a bloody brilliant app. Its older sibling, London Bus Checker, has been running the routes in the capital for a while but this release from the developer takes the fun national.

Bus Checker taps into the live bus information from all the bus companies in the UK and lets you know exactly when each bus will be passing your stop. Yes, that’s every single bus stop in the United Kingdom, around 300,000 of them, as it goes. The app will use your location and present you with a map of all of your nearest ones. Click on any of them and it brings up a superbly thought out graphical representation of your typical bus shelter complete with arrival board, dot matrix or otherwise.

The board will tell you exactly how long it is until each bus arrives and you can filter down by pressing the route numbers on the bus sign you’re interested in. The end result is a kind of personalised, virtual, private stop: the best part being that you don’t have to wait at the real one.

Now, that might not be such a big deal in London where the buses come thick and fast but take it out to the sticks where there can be up to an hour in between services and UK Bus Checker becomes something of a life saver.

The app shows you entire routes, allows you to rename and select your favourite stops and will even alert you when your stop is coming up once on board. In short, if you’re a regular bus traveller, then this is the app you’ve been waiting for. It’s not free but it doesn’t matter. Pay, buy, download and save yourself a whole hatful of hassle.

Dan's love affair with tech began in 1985 with his first computer, the Enterprise 128. After a psychology and zoology degree at university, a career on stage and screen he joined Pocket-lint in 2009. Dan has now moved on to pastures new.